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Writing Advice | Getting Started in Writing. We’re going to help you take your writing to the next level-to introduce you to the craft of writing. To become proficient at any trade or craft, you must first learn to handle the tools and raw materials at your disposal. As a writer, your raw material will be the words you use to express your ideas. To turn that raw material into a finished product-a story, an article, or a book-you’ll use … Learn More →

1st Person Point of View | Learn More Here: How do you choose a Point of View (POV)? Point of view means the “person” (as in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, and not the character’s voice) the writer uses when telling the story. However, when people talk about POV they sometimes refer to the character who is telling the story. The terms POV, person, and voice are used interchangeably and actually have more than one meaning, which makes talking about them … Learn More →

Fantasy Writers – Where do you belong? Most critics and publishers treat science fiction and fantasy as two separate genres, but the two are inextricably linked. In the 1960s, J. R. R. Tolkien’s monumental Lord of the Rings trilogy was published in paperback in the US, launching a whole new category of popular literature now known as heroic or epic fantasy. This type of story often features magic and swordplay against a medieval backdrop. For some reason that no one … Learn More →

Write a Plot – Outlining Your Novel. Let’s take a look at a few classic outlining methods. The Three-Act Method. Story structure provides the basis for your book. It’s the skeleton into which you breathe the life of your story. That means the foundation for your outline will rest upon that structure. What’s known as the three-act structure is one of the most basic and time-honored approaches. Based upon three major plot points (at the end of the first act, … Learn More →

Writing Tips – Short Story Fundamentals. “Rules” of the Short Story: While a list of short story “rules” does nothing so much as invite exceptions, we can point to a few characteristics that most successful stories share. • Short stories can be said to have a beginning, middle, and end • Unlike many novels, short stories generally have a single viewpoint character • A short story usually covers a smaller time frame than a novel, and usually has fewer characters … Learn More →

How to Contact an Agent. Not too many years ago, an author would type the last page of her book, pack the manuscript into a typing-paper box, add a cover letter and return postage, then send it by library rate to the publisher. Some of those books actually got into print; a few of them even became best-sellers. But that was then. This is the twenty-first century, where most unsolicited manuscripts are returned, unread, to the authors. The “blind send” … Learn More →

Easy Way to Write – The Art of Storytelling 101. Identifying a Great Concept: Coming up with a concept to write about is the easy part. Writers are inspired by many things, including daily conflicts in their lives and their friends’ lives, what they read in magazines and see on the news, and even by daydreams while driving to work. That moment of inspiration usually arrives in the form of a plot idea. A slightly sunburned writer is sitting on … Learn More →

Writing for the Web – Writing Online Content. WRITING FOR THE WEB: BASIC PRINCIPLES: Writing should be clear, cohesive, comprehensible, concise, and correct (the 5Cs see figure 1.1 in The Complete Guide to Article Writing). Furthermore, although the individual appeal of any writer lies in her voice, every writer should have a strong understanding of style. Style is defined as generally accepted conventions of writing: punctuation, grammar, word usage, and so forth. With respect to online writing, a mastery of … Learn More →

Writing Skills – Types of Sentences. Sentences are classified as one of four main types: • simple • compound • complex • compound-complex Most effective composition makes use of varying sentence structure, as this keeps readers engaged with the text rather than lulling them with repetition (unless of course, that’s your goal—think of Dick, Jane and Spot). By definition, a sentence must contain at least one independent clause, but there may certainly be more to it. We’ll start with the … Learn More →

Online Writing Workshops – Showing vs. Telling. What Is the Difference Between Showing and Telling? The difference between showing and telling is the difference between experiencing a dream and telling someone about that dream. Remember that vivid dream you had from which you woke up frightened, giddy, exhilarated, or crying? Do you also remember the reaction of people when you tried to tell them about your amazing dream? Forced smiles, bored eyes, impatient shifting in chairs. That’s because you told … Learn More →

Creative Writing Fiction – Story Impact. These internal and external components of the conflict are what the entire story revolves around. · What happened? · How does she feel about what happened? · How does it change her goal? · How does she react? · What is she going to do to resolve the situation? · What happens when she tries to resolve the situation? · How will this change her? These choices influence the decisions and twists and turns … Learn More →

Writing Copy – Breaking into Copywriting. The 4 Copywriting Guidelines: While there are countless ways to utilize copy, there are 4 fundamental guidelines that most copy follows, regardless of what is being written or the medium in which it will appear. These guidelines may be familiar if you have marketing experience, or you might recognize them from Glengarry Glen Ross, the play (and film) about sales. Don’t let the image of Alec Baldwin screeching “Always. Be. Closing.” scare you! These … Learn More →

Fiction Writers – Learn How to Write Fiction. Characterization Techniques: Once you’ve spent some time with your characters—gotten to know their internal and external traits—you will be tempted to share this wealth of information with your reader. Not only is this not necessary, it can be deadly to your story. As author, you need to know a lot about your characters in order to write about them convincingly, but your reader only needs as much information as is necessary to … Learn More →

Novel Writing Course – Build Your Novel Scene by Scene. Writing With Heart and Soul: Internal scenes reveal the interior life of a character—what motivates them, what emotions they experience and what makes them tick. Internal scenes are crucial to any novel because they help the reader feel they understand a character, and, as a result, their actions. If you can get a reader to feel what your character feels, you’ve done your job as an author. I want us … Learn More →

Writing Career – Digging In: You have some experience editing and a decent understanding of the basic rules of grammar, but you need to go deeper in order to do a thorough job, to become a professional at your trade. Whether your experience comes in the form of a job or WDU’s Introduction to Copyediting course, you realize that there is a lot more to copyediting than meets the eye. You know what a copy editor does, how she does … Learn More →

How to Write a Story – Heroes and Villains: Author Lester Dent uses the words “hero” and “villain,” which for a lot of us might conjure up visions of two-dimensional stock characters: the perfect and perfectly uninteresting hero, and the mustache-twirling villain. But can you call them “protagonist” and “antagonist”? Of course you can. Can your hero be more of an anti-hero? Absolutely, just like popular pulp characters like the Shadow or Conan the Barbarian. And your villains better darn … Learn More →

How to Create a Blog – Customizing a Theme: One of the great things about blogging is having access to themes that have been pre-designed especially for the platform you are using. This means they will work – both functionally and aesthetically. A theme is like the clothes your blog wears. You can change theme the way you change clothes – the body of your blog (its content and the software engine running it) remain in place, it’s just the … Learn More →

It may be fair to say that the existence of magic puts a work of fiction in the fantasy genre, and the presence of imagined technology makes any story a science fiction story. But then doesn’t all fantasy contain some technology? And even some science fiction, like Star Wars, can offer up a modicum of magic (the Force, anyone?). And couldn’t you write a fantasy story—set in a wholly-created world, rife with dragons and orcs—with no magic? After all, anything … Learn More →

Back in the day (and by “day”, we mean anything before about 2004), if you dreamed of publishing a children’s book, you had two options: You worked hard on your craft, then submitted your book to publishers. And waited. You attended conferences and met editors and agents taking submissions. You mailed in your manuscript, and waited. If you had a very good book, excellent timing, and a large dollop of luck, you eventually got a call from an editor offering … Learn More →

What Is A Story, Anyway, And Who Gets To Decide? In a sense, we all get to decide what a story is. Writers decide every time they sit down at their keyboards. Editors decide by choosing what to publish in their books and magazines. And readers—those wonderful people—decide with their wallets and their time. Edgar Allan Poe said a short story should be “no longer than can be read in a single sitting,” which seems a good rule of thumb. … Learn More →

Serial Commas: If you are following CMS usage rules, you will use a serial comma. Ex. The flag is red, white, and blue. (The underlined comma is the serial comma.) And: The rabbit ran under the bench, through the shed, and across the field. If you are following AP rules, you will omit the serial comma. Colon: The colon introduces a full sentence or a list. For CMS usage, you will not capitalize the first letter of the first word … Learn More →

KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING. The Writing the Thriller Novel Workshop is about writing a strong, solid, entertaining novel. Before you start writing, you need to know where you’re going, and you need to know how to get there, chronicling your narrative in a manner that draws your readers with you. The destination—where you’re going—will be different for each writer. In this course, each writer will reach his destination by applying Death Overhanging to his story. The concept of Death Overhanging … Learn More →

Your Vision, Your Goals, and Your Action Plan for Successful Authorship What are you passionate about? What is your vision for yourself and your book? What are your values? (List at least three.) What is your definition of success? What are your goals? (List at least three and make them SMART goals—specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) What topics do you want to write about? What genres do you want to write in? Do you think you can create books … Learn More →

Although you may be tempted to begin by simply forging ahead with the first paragraph of your draft, I caution you against it. One of the fundamental keys to success when writing a draft in a condensed period of time is making sure you do enough pre-thinking, pre-writing, and, importantly, outlining before you even pen your opening line. Creative Exercises: Minor characters help reveal the personality traits and values of major ones. Write ten character bios for ten different minor … Learn More →

When it comes to building an audience you need to take stock not only of what you have to offer in terms of resources and skills but in terms of your hobbies and interests as well, because your goal is to connect in an organic way with people through every avenue available, and desirable, to you. This doesn’t mean you’re going to have to become the literary equivalent of a pyramid scheme salesperson, vigorously pitching your books to everyone you … Learn More →

Do you want to be guided through the epublishing process from start to after publication, as well as given guidance on how to promote and market your book? No writer is an island. The minimum amount of spit and polish a book requires is proofreading, but even a seasoned professional (actually, a seasoned professional knows better) can always use the sharp eye of a good editor. If you can afford it, you should hire a line editor to read your … Learn More →

Creative Exercises to Fuel Your Essay Writing: Choose a mundane object that’s within your eyesight at the moment you read this sentence. It might be a pencil, a vase, a shoe, or a button. Write a paragraph describing the object in concrete/sensory terms (color, shape, etc.), then write a few paragraphs about the metaphoric or symbolic value of the object: What might it stand for? For example, a button holds things together. It might help to think about clichés that … Learn More →

Oftentimes, it is easy to come up with an entire blog post if you have a headline that inspires you. You can even group headlines by topic. So, if you are writing a blog about bookbinding, you can create a dozen headlines each for the following categories: sourcing natural materials, binding techniques, paper quality and sizes, bookbinding groups and networks, history of bookbinding, etc. The best headlines offer at least one of two things: 1) something useful and 2) something … Learn More →

A key to success for any writer is having an online presence. Blogging is one way to share your expertise and—at the same time—build an author platform. Don’t know how to start a blog? Not sure what to focus on? Don’t fret. Here are some tips from the Blogging 101 class. Identify Your Audience! Most people approach online media by casting the widest net. They want as many “eyeballs” as possible, assuming that scale will lead to success. But that’s … Learn More →

It’s not fantasy without magic and it’s not science fiction without advanced technology. What your characters can do, the means by which they communicate, defend themselves, travel, and so on, will have to be as plausible as they are imaginative. It may be fair to say that the existence of magic puts a work of fiction in the fantasy genre, and the presence of imagined technology makes any story a science fiction story. But then doesn’t all fantasy contain some … Learn More →